DARKFANG BARROW

The Darkfang are a collective nation of goblinoids who worship H'EL, the dark goddess. An example is this small clan of goblins, who has recently taken up residence in Briarwood, inhabiting an ancient elven burial mound.

• BARROW ENTRY DOORS: The doors have lion heads carved into them at about head level. The lion heads are covered with dust (which a DC 15 Spot check notices). Attempting to open the doors without tapping the lions on their foreheads causes ghostly red lion heads, growling, to stretch from the carvings, bite the intruder, and recede.

Lion Head Trap: CR 1; magic device; touch trigger; automatic reset; Atk +6 melee (1d8, 2 bites); Search DC 17, Disable Device DC 21.

• 1) TOTEM CHAMBER - DEMON TOTEM STATUE: "This chamber is dark, but the light playing in from the
  open door above hints at a bare stone cave. In the center of the chamber
  across from the door is a statue of demonic countenance. It stands tall
  and slender, with small horns, muscular arms folded over its robes, and
  a hugely distended mouth. Its lower jaw drops all the way to the
  statue’s base, where it merges with a semicircular trough that rings the
  statue."

If the heroes proceed into the room with a light source (i.e., they can see the east wall), continue with the following.


Wharmug worked his twisted sorceries when crafting this crudely carved totem. It is used to power-up his forces and to turn them into fire-breathing goblin fiends.
A DC 20 Knowledge (religion) check reveals that the statue is of a bloodthirsty, fiery demon; he allegedly granted his power to people who allowed him to drink their blood.

If a living creature touches the statue, read of paraphrase the following.

Characters can sacrifice blood (their own blood, not that of a dead opponent) to the statue by bleeding into the trough. If they do, the blood hisses as if on a griddle, and, in beads, rises along the statue’s stretched jaw and into its mouth. The eyes flare brighter as the blood rises.

A hero can choose how many hit points of blood he wishes to sacrifice. After sacrificing blood, the hero feels himself brimming with power, and feels his hands and eyes tingle. He knows instinctively that he can concentrate on these feelings to make something happen — and if he tries it, he finds that he can shoot brief rays of orange fire from his palms, fingers, eyes, or any object he holds in his hands. This is a supernatural ability, takes a standard action, provokes attacks of opportunity, and has a maximum range of 30 feet with no range increment. The hero can fire as many rays as he likes, though the ability goes away when the wounds from his blood sacrifice heal.

The rays require ranged touch attacks to hit and they deal fire damage. The amount of damage they deal depends on the amount of blood the hero sacrificed, as shown on the table below.

  Hit Points of     Ray     Hit Points of     Ray
  Blood Sacrificed  Damage  Blood Sacrificed  Damage
  --------------------------------------------------
  1                 1       7–8               1d8
  2                 1d2     9–10              1d10
  3                 1d3     11–12             2d6
  4                 1d4     13–18             2d8
  5–6               1d6     etc.
  --------------------------------------------------

DEMON TOTEM STATUE: Hardness 8; hp 35; break DC 25.

When the party first enters the barrow complex, none of the clan has utilized the powers of the totem. If any of the goblins in other areas are made aware of a skirmish, half of them will stop, and sacrifice half their available hit points to the totem, in order to gain its fire-breathing enchantment.

• 2) LACKEY'S CHAMBER
• 3) TROLL'S LAIR
• 4) CLAN COMMONS
• 5) BRUTE'S CHAMBER
• 6) CLAN LOOT
• 7) WORG PENS
• 8) WHARMOG'S CHAMBER

See also:

• Applegate
• Briarwood
• Corwyn Village